F3 Knoxville

Tag: Spotter

Use Your Words

THE SCENE:  48 and clear.  Perfect for a beatdown.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered. 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

Overhead clap IC x 8
Seal jacks IC x 8
Hillbilly walkers
Knee tap merkins
Mountain climbers
Monkey humpers

Grab a block…

Tempo curls
Tempo shoulder press
Tempo squat
Let it hang

THA THANG:

Heavy suicide.  Rifle carry CMU to line 1.  25 heavy freddies (4 ct).  Mosey carry back.  30 CMU curls.  Repeat with lines 2 and 3.

Bearicide – Bear crawl 1 line, do 1 donkey kick, crawl bear back, do 1 CMU thruster.  Repeat w/ lines 2-7, donkey kick and thruster reps equal the number line (e.g. line 7 = 7 donkey kicks and 7 thrusters…)

Doracide.  Partner up.  P1 runs to first island and does 2 burpees then back, run to second island and does 2 burpees then back.  P2 does exercises.  Switchero.
Team does 100 CMU squat curls, 150 uneven merkins, 200 heavy LBCs

Block work with serpentine run.  20 Triceps. 15 curls, 10 shoulder press.  Run serpentine around the islands (about ¼ mile total).  Sprint the straights, jog the curves.

MARY:

Sprint to a line.  First one there calls out an ab exercise and leads IC.  Got through flutter kicks, pickle pounders, pickle pointers.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

9 plus 3 Rushers

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Inspiration for this morning’s Word came from the Hardship Hill race, which several of us competed in two weeks ago.  The event was raising funds and awareness for Operation Enduring Warrior, an organization that provides rehabilitation opportunities for wounded military and law enforcement veterans.  As the race was being introduced, a combat veteran came to the microphone and said this… “Two years ago, I went onto the back deck of my house, put a gun into my mouth, and pulled the trigger.”  Mercifully, the gun misfired.  He went on to start working with the awesome men and women of OEW.  That organization helped him rehabilitate, and now he is helping others work through trials.

Closer to home… The division I work in has 19 people – about half are my staff, about half are my peers.  Last summer, we had an intern – an engineering student from UT.  For 8 weeks, he worked with us 8 hours a day, sat near us, ate with us, and laughed with us.  At the end of the summer, he went back to school to finish his senior year – and we talked about having him back during Christmas break.  But by this time last year, he was dead.  That young man who had just spent so much time around me and my colleagues had killed himself.  You know what?  None of us had any idea that he was suffering from depression.  We spent months living most of our days right next to him, and we had no idea.  I’ve replayed conversations with him – and cannot think of one word he said that indicated he was suffering.

 

Quick story to make a point…

“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible…”  That was the first line in a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt 108 years ago today – October 14, 1912.  The second line was a bombshell – and it revealed why he needed utter silence from the crowd that evening… “I don’t know whether you fully understand…that I have just been shot”. 

The 53-year-old former president was in Milwaukee, campaigning for a third term.  He stepped out of his hotel and into an open car waiting to take him to an auditorium where he would deliver a speech.  As he stood up in the open-air automobile and waved his hat, a would-be assassin fired his Colt .38 revolver straight into Roosevelt’s chest.  Roosevelt reached inside his heavy overcoat and felt a dime-sized bullet hole on the right side of his chest. Having handled guns as a hunter, a cowboy, and an officer during the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt knew enough to put a finger to his lips to see if he was bleeding from the mouth. When he saw that he was not, he concluded that the bullet had not entered his lung.  An accompanying doctor naturally told the driver to head directly to the hospital, but Roosevelt gave a different order; “You get me to that speech.”

They took Roosevelt to the arena.  He went to the podium and stunned his audience by opening his shirt to show the bleeding wound.  Then he took out his manuscript, showed that the bullet had passed through it, and said, “…(this) probably saved me from (the bullet) going into my heart.”  His nervous aides positioned themselves around the podium to catch him if he collapsed, and they begged him to stop speaking.  He answered their petitions with a glare – and went on to give an 87-minute long speech…with that bullet still lodged in his chest (what a dude!).

After the campaign event, Roosevelt went to a hospital.  X-rays showed the bullet lodged against his fourth right rib – and confirmed Roosevelt’s self-diagnosis.  The bullet had halted on an upward path to his heart.  It had been slowed by the manuscript – a 53-page speech, folded double, and held in his breast pocket.

The message is this; the way you use your words can save your life. 

 

The point:  If you are depressed, don’t suffer alone and in silence.  The way you use your words can save your life…  If you can tell someone, “I need help… I need prayer… I’m depressed… I have thoughts of killing myself...” – those words might just save your life…

If you are suffering with depression or thoughts of suicide – brother, TALK TO SOMEONE.

Talk to me or anyone else in F3.  Talk to another trusted friend, or a minister, or a counselor, call a hotline and talk to a total stranger…just talk to someone.  Ecclesiastes 4:12 (The Message translation).  “By yourself you’re unprotected.  With a friend, you can face the worst.  Can you round up a third?  A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.”  Maybe you think that your confidant will react with alarm or judgement – but don’t believe that lie for a second.  What you’ll hear is some version of, “It took real balls to share that with me – thank you.  Now, let’s do the work to get you through this and back on your feet.”

One CDC study has estimated that a little over 40% of your peers have experienced symptoms of depression during COVID, and 11% (ELEVEN PERCENT!!!!) have seriously considered suicide.  White men are a high-risk population – dying at 3.5 times the rate of other demographics.

Men, we must talk to each other about hard things.  We must listen closely to each other and remain alert for signs of a brother in despair.  We must look out for each other and speak life to one another. 

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue”.  Proverbs 18:21 (CSB)

MOLESKIN:

Around the time COVID started, I remember somebody posting on the F3 main chat an alarming statistic about an uptick in suicides – particularly in men.  The response to that post was one of the coolest things that I’ve ever seen a group of men do – several posts rapid-fire, all with the same basic message, “if you need to talk, call me!” and a phone number.  I’ve never been prouder to be a part of this remarkable group of men. 

T-Claps to Steam and Tank for talking about depression and suicide awareness during Episode 2 of the F3 Knoxville Podcast. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Convergence at the Bomb Shelter this Saturday.

Nine Line

THE SCENE:  50 and clear.  Perfect for a beatdown.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Administered 
WARM-O-RAMA: 

Reach for the sky
Chinook OYO
Michael Phelps OYO
Finkle swings OYO
Imperial walker IC x 9
Tempo squat IC x 9
Tempo werkins IC x 9
Carolina dry dock IC x 9
Heals to heaven IC x 9
Parker Burpee x 2 OYO
Projectivator from 9

THA THANG:

Mosey to Jucomanjaro.  Stop at the coupons and do 20 curls, 20 shoulder presses, 20 triceps, 20 curls, and hold over your head while I explain what comes next.

Nine Line:  Divide into groups of 3.  As you run up Jucomanjaro, there are nine lines spaced 100’ apart.  At each line is a cone with an exercise.  Run to the cone, perform the exercise, and run back to the base of Jucomanjaro.  Perform 2 parker burpees at the base, then go back up and move to the next cone in sequence.  Each team starts at a different cone, to keep us spaced out.

Exercises were:

  • Base: 2 parker burpees
  • Line 1: 30 merkins
  • Line 2: 30 flutter kicks 4-ct
  • Line 3: 30 carolina dry dock
  • Line 4: 30 heals to heaven
  • Line 5: 30 diamond merkins
  • Line 6: 30 hello dolly (4-ct)
  • Line 7: werkins
  • Line 8: 30 side crunch (15 each side)
  • Line 9: 30 mountain climbers (4 ct)

MARY:

Run down Jucomanjaro, performing 15 air squats at each cone.  Mosey back to the shovel flag.  10 rosalitas + 10 hello dolly + 20 LBC.

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 8 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Bottom line up front – Today’s Word was about thinking about the broken men (Sad Clowns) in your life and inspiring them to better themselves.  I opened by echoing part of Butterknife’s Word from a couple of weeks ago.  This group means so much to me.  You guys challenge me to be better as a father, husband, and friend.  I am grateful for you all.  BUT…

 

I want you to imagine yourself as an American soldier, on a humanitarian mission in little mountain village in Afghanistan.  It is a peaceful and beautiful early fall morning, but you sense a tension in the villagers.  All the sudden, the peace is shattered, and your unit is under attack from a hidden enemy.  You and another soldier take cover behind the heavy wheel of a Humvee and are returning fire when, to your left, you hear a thud and a groan.  You look over and see that he’s been hit in the leg and is bleeding.  What do you do?  In that moment, what is your obligation to that solider?

Get him into a safe position!  Apply first aid – help him put pressure on the wound to stanch the bleeding – elevate his feet!  Once he’s stable, you secure the scene – continue to return fire until advantage is won!  Next, call in the casualty and get a medevac on the way!

The battlefield version of dialing 911 is “calling in a nine line”.  It is a standardized, efficient, way to send casualty information by radio traffic.  Here is the format:

  • Line 1. Location of the pick-up site.
  • Line 2. Radio frequency, call sign, and suffix.
  • Line 3. Patient precedence: (A – Urgent, B – Urgent Surgical, etc.)
  • Line 4. Special equipment required: (Extraction equipment, ventilator, etc.)
  • Line 5. Number of patients:
  • Line 6. Security at pick-up site: (e.g. enemy troops in area, approach with caution)
  • Line 7. Method of marking pick-up site: (e.g. smoke signal)
  • Line 8. Patient nationality and status: (e.g. US military, US civilian)
  • Line 9. NBC Contamination: (e.g. nuclear, biological, chemical)

The expectation is that you will relay this information in less than 25 seconds.  Therefore, you have to know exactly what you’re going to say before you make the call.  Before you call in the nine line, you must first pause to deliberately and accurately evaluate the wounded man’s condition.  Where is he?  What is the situation?  How bad off his he?  Ultimately, how are we going to get him out of this mess that he’s in?  Now…call in that nine line!

I want to use that as a metaphor.  In the battlefield of life, there are wounded men around you.  Think about the men in your life – your coworkers, your neighbors, your brothers, your friends.  Which of those men is a casualty?  The coworker whose health is so poor that he can’t play with his own kids? (I’ve been that man).  The friend who has checked out from his marriage? (I’ve been that man).  The brother who drinks every night – not to relax, but to retreat? (I’ve been that man).  The neighbor who is pretending to have it all together, but you know it’s just a façade?  (I’ve been that man).  Who is a hot mess right now?  Now, prep a quick nine line for him.  What I mean is…pause to deliberately and accurately evaluate that wounded man’s condition.  Where is he (physically, relationally, spiritually)?  What is the situation (health, relationships, habits)?  How bad off his he?  Ultimately, what can we do to get him out of this mess that he’s in? 

I love this group…BUT…we are missing something – THAT MAN.  The mission of F3 is to “to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership”.  If JUCO is going to make a real impact on the Hardin Valley community, then we must bring out the men who need to be invigorated.  Those who are hurting need to come and be encouraged.  Those who are self-absorbed or arrogant need to come and be humbled.  Those who are listless need to come and be spurred into action.

Q-Source 1.1 says this about those men, “A man needs help to get right.  The boats of some men have been so long capsized that they have gradually surrendered to a life of being swept downstream by circumstances.”  You are called to be that man’s disruptor.  You are called to bring a disturbance to his life which is led only by inertia.  Bring him out.  F3 is not going to save his marriage, it isn’t going to give his life purpose, it certainly isn’t going to redeem his soul.  But…waking up early, working hard with hardworking men, being challenged by challenging words, praying together – those habits just might spur MOVEMENT, then ACCELERATION, then MOMENTUM in the right direction. Over time, the impact of that routine can be huge.

Bring that man out here.

MOLESKIN:

Repeating part of Stye’s Word from last week; Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

Romans 15:1-2, “We who are strong must help those who are not strong. We must not do what pleases us. But each of us must please his neighbor. He must do what is good for him and what will help him do better.”

Q Source 1.1 https://f3nation.com/drp-2

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Prayers for Darryl in the hospital.  Rejoicing for Bailey!

Choose your own adventure vs The Kraken

THE SCENE: Low 60’s, pretty chill
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
10xCherry Pickers, 15xlbac fwd/bck, 20xSSH, 10 Tempo Merkins, 10 Tempo Squats
THA-THANG:
Mosey to the large parking lot and “Belch” our way back towards the coupon pile. 5 merkins on every line then pop up and sprint to the next line. 10 rounds in total.

At the coupon pile, grab a CMU and complete the following.

5 exercises to choose:

  1. CMU Squats
  2. CMU Curls
  3. CMU Tricep Press
  4. CMU Thrusters
  5. CMU Swings

Over 5 rounds, pick one exercise and perform 50 reps, then run to the top of the stairs and perform 1 burpee, repeat with 40 reps, and so on down to 10 reps. Must perform all exercises, but you pick which round to do them.

Mosey over to the bright parking lot to meet the Kraken.

The Kraken: 9 cones spread out in a circle with an exercise written at each cone:

  1. Travoltas
  2. Star Jumps
  3. Heals-to-Heaven
  4. Diamond Merkins
  5. Bobby Hurley
  6. BBS
  7. Werkins
  8. Imperial Squat Walkers
  9. Monkey Humpers

Partner up and perform 25 reps of the exercise. One partner must crab walk and one must bear crawl to the light pole in the middle then back to the next cone.

Called time a little before one full round.

MARY:
20xFlutter Kicks, 20xFreddie Mercuries, 20xBBS, 20xPickle Pounders

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
13 HIMS with 1 FNG, Welcome Scrubs! Kudos for driving all the way from Clinton.
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
Plugged the book “Point Man” by Steve Farrar

Discussed the importance of Quantity vs Quality of time spent with our kids/family. It’s impossible to know when you will have a “teaching moment”, especially with younger kids. There is a major issue in America today and a lot of it stems from a lack of male leadership, hence the importance of F3’s mission. In order to make a lasting and impactful impression on our families, we need to be spending a lot of time with them. There is a negative trope often portrayed in media that fathers are supposed to spend “quality” time with their children (i.e. being the fun dad by taking kids for ice cream), however, we need to be sure we aren’t neglecting “quantity” time with our children.
MOLESKIN:
Shoutout to Dartgun for taking my jab at doing 50 thrusters to heart and knocking them out like the beast he is.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill this Saturday. Even if you’re not racing, consider coming out for a bit to check it out and encourage the team.

Eh, what’s up doc? I’m hunting wabbits!

THE SCENE: 60 ish and raining
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER
WARM-O-RAMA:
Short warmup of SSH, tempo squats, and cherry pickers
THA-THANG:
Murder Bunnies IRON PAX week 4

  • 10 Burpee block jumps followed by “murder bunnies” to the yard lines with exercises below and then carry CMU back for more Burpee block jumps
  • 25 yard 25 thrusters
  • 50 yard 50 Hand change block Merkins
  • 75 Yard 75 curl/press with CMU
  • 100 yard 100 windshield wipers over the CMU

MARY:
No mary, running late
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

FNG pink panther

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
“If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.”  As an F3 pax, community, or country we need to work together, if we want to go far in this life.  We all have talents, gifts, and ideas that may be different.  That is what God intends.  He expects for us to use these as the Body of Christ to move together and help one another.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Hardship Hill coming up next weekend.

35th Birthday Tour of Mount Rushmore

THE SCENE: 50’s. Perfect weather. Even got a Happy Birthday wish and surprise visit from Ribbed before the Q started and knew it was going to be a fun, successful workout for all PAX.
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER – Administered + Cell Phone + COVID distancing
WARM-O-RAMA:
Today I turn 35 and that means I can now be POTUS (that’s President Of The United States for those of you who don’t speak acronym. We’re going to do some themed routines and bring it all together in the BOM. So without further ado…
IC 10 x Tennessee Rocking Chair
IC 10 x Moroccan Night Club
IC 10 x El Capitan
OYO 10 x Tempo Merkin
IC 10 x Seal Clap Squat
IC 10 x Dancing Bear
IC 5 x Pickle Pounder
IC 5 x Glute Bridge (aka Pickle Pointer)
4 rounds of 10 Calf raises followed by the following sprints:
50%, 70%, 90%, 100%
THA-THANG:
Mosey to F3 parking near portable classrooms. Double check for skunk that was seen during making Weinke‘s (named for Tennessee’s current QB’s coach Chris Weinke due to his inability to remember plays) and pointed out by Dart Gun.

The first POTUS was George Washington, so we’ll do a partner routine that spells out his name:
W.A.S.H.
Find a partner. All exercises are single count. Each exercise is done only 10 at a time while your partner is doing their reps you do the iso(metric) hold for a total of the number at the end.
Werkins / Plank – 50
American Hammers / Boat or Canoe – 100
Step-ups / Al Gore – 150
Hip Thrusts (aka Pickle Pounders) / Glute Bridge Hold – 200

Call recover, get a 15 count. Mosey to Iron Pax Week 3 location (aka big parking lot – nice write-up Wanderer!).

Thomas Jefferson was the 2nd POTUS. We’ll be doing 2 minutes of the following for 3 rounds
10 Squats – 1 Burpee – 10 Merkins – 1 Burpee (okay so this is basically IPC Week 3 but only for 2 minutes) – Repeat
15-30 seconds rest, Q explain next round
10 Lunges (single count) – 1 Burpee – 10 Seal Clap Squats – 1 Burpee – Repeat
15-30 seconds rest, Q explain next round
10 Pickle Pounders – 1 Burpee – 10 Pickle Pointers – 1 Burpee – Repeat
15-30 seconds rest, mosey to next POTUS location

Call recover, get a 15 count. Q next asked: Who was the 26th President of the United States
A from Sty: Theodore Roosevelt (I was not expecting a correct answer so major points to Sty and also for making the HC to come today by taking the flag home with him and bringing it back!)

So next we’ll be doing T.E.D.D.Y. for a set time (until 6:07am so we can get back to the AO in time for our last POTUS of the day) – do 5 reps of each exercise and then do 1 extra rep on one exercise you choose for a total of 26 reps each round!
Tempo Merkin
El Capitan
Derkin
Dancing Bear
Yurpee

Call recover, get a 10 count. Last but not least mosey back to the AO and the Q asked – “who was the 5th President of the United States?” No quick answers came but that was okay because the Q messed up the question thinking about the $5 bill. The Q asked again “who was the 16th POTUS?” Several “Abraham Lincoln”‘s were stated. While moseying back to the Shovel Flag the Q then stated the following: “Abraham Lincoln once said ‘the trouble with quotes on the internet is that it’s hard to verify their authenticity'”. And since Honest Abe was the 16th POTUS, this was meant to be a funny segue on to our final routine of the day: a 5-minute song: Thunderstruck! The F3 Exicon has it slightly different but below is what we did (just like in February!)

BOLD & JUICY “Thunderstruck” modification:
Start the song with pickle pounders.
When they start saying “thunder” go into plank and do 1 merkin every time it’s said.
Hold plank until at the end of the first verse when he says “thunderstruck.”
For the rest of the song when he says “thunderstruck” do 1 burpee.
After the first thunderstruck, the Q led the following changes to exercises at certain points in the song:
BBS until the first “shaking at the knees”, doing burpees as they say “thunderstruck”
Flutter kicks until the second “shaking at the knees”, doing burpees as they say “thunderstruck”
BBS until the last round of “thunderstruck” starts and do burpees until the end of the song.

MARY:
“Does Thunderstruck Count?”
-Abraham Lincoln
COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA
20 PAX strong (Judge Judy not pictured – he had to bow out for work before Honest Abe’s rendition of AC/DC)
CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:
What do the presidents we covered this morning have in common? They’re all on Mount Rushmore which is located in the Black Hills in Keystone , SD. Fun fact about Mount Rushmore: Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941.
So back to the Q and how this is relevant: Today I turn 35 – something I actually got wrong in the name-o-rama because I’ve said 34 for the past 100+ posts at F3 it’s second-nature. 35 means I’m “old enough” to be President of the United States. But there’s a deeper question at hand here: at its root, what is the POTUS to do? He’s a ruler and as Romans 13:3-4 tells us:
3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Rules, including the POTUS, under God’s authority. We are under God’s authority. We are under the authority of our local church. We’re all under authority and have to submit to authority. More on that later.

Next let’s read about what Jesus says about how the world views when it has authority and how we as followers of Christ should view authority when we’re the ones “in charge”.

Matthew 20:20-28
Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[c] 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,[d] 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As usual, 3 questions for us remain to ask
1. Everyone is under authority – do you recognize it? Or do you rage against it?
2. When you ask Jesus for things, are you cognizant of the cost he’s going to ask you to pay?
James paid with his life as a martyr.
John was exiled and died alone on the isle of Patmos.
And the question to ask most of all…
3. When you are in leadership, instead of like this world “lording it over others”, are you
the slave, the bondservant, of those around you?
MOLESKIN:
Q’ing on my birthday was pretty great fun. Felt great to start the week with the JUCOnian HIMs. I encourage every man to Q on or the day before/after his birthday. It’s a way to seek to serve when the day can feel all about you but Christ really does shine through when we put others first on the “day that’s supposed to be all about me”.

PS – Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest president to date at 42 due to William McKinley’s assassination.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Kenjo Q Wednesday. IPC Week 3 Friday (Open Q at the moment – SIGN UP!)